I was Thrown into an Unfamiliar Manga

We stood over the unconscious Asiatic black bear and decided to figure out what to do with it.
“Should we report it to the police or fire department first? Like, ‘we ran into a bear in the woods, what do we do?’”
“That’s a good idea, but we’re out of service range here. You’d have to go outside the forest to make a call.”

“Then how about killing it?”
“Asiatic black bears are a protected species. If you kill one on purpose, you’ll probably get fined.”
“Ugh! What kind of law is that?! We almost died!”

As Satoru grumbled and shouted, the class president shrugged and said that’s just how the law works.
I listened to their exchange quietly, then shared my own opinion.
“Anyway, we can’t just leave the bear here. Other students might run into it, and if it wakes up, it might go on a rampage again.”

“So what are you gonna do? We don’t have any options right now.”
I thought about it for a moment.
And came to a conclusion.

“If it wakes up and goes wild again, we’ll just knock it out again.”
Satoru looked at me like I was out of my «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» mind.
“You’re the only person I know who could say something like ‘I’ll just knock out the bear with my bare hands’ with a straight face.”

“No, it’s not like that. If the class president hadn’t told me its weak spot, I would’ve really struggled.”
When I looked at her and said that, the class president mumbled, “Huh? Me? I just said what I knew…” and looked embarrassed.
Just as we had roughly settled on a course of action—

“What are you all doing here?”
“Hm? What’s with the bear?”
Rika and Sasha came walking down the trail with flashlights in hand.
***

After hearing the whole story from Satoru, our class’s official jester, Rika laughed so hard she almost fell over.
“Ahahahahaha! AHAHAHAHA! I mean, seriously? You mistook a bear for Yu-seong?!”
Satoru turned away, embarrassed by her harmless mockery.

Even he probably thought it was really stupid in hindsight.
Anyway, after hearing the plan the three of us had come up with, the two of them reacted differently.
“If Yu-seong can subdue the bear, that’s probably the best move. If we just leave it alone, it might endanger the others.”

“Is that really necessary? You can just tame it.”
What?
We all turned to Sasha in shock as she calmly suggested taming the bear.

Sasha tilted her head and said,
“In Russia, bears are treated kind of like dogs or cats. We keep two brown bears at home.”
Satoru asked with a stunned expression,

“Wait, seriously? That’s not just a Russian joke?”
Sasha nodded and opened her phone gallery.
There she was, genuinely snuggling in the arms of a brown bear.

Next to her was Ivan, who we’d seen before, proudly riding on the back of another brown bear.
Why he was shirtless was beyond me.
“Who’s the person next to you?”

“My father.”
“So it’s true what they say—Russia really is a country of manly men…”
“Anyway, that should be enough proof, right? I can tame that bear.”

As Sasha puffed out her chest with confidence, the most reasonable person among us—the class president—asked anxiously,
“Even so, isn’t it dangerous? That bear just got beaten up really badly by Yu-seong. Won’t it be furious when it wakes up?”
Sasha wiggled her index finger and replied,

“I’ve got a secret weapon, so it’s fine.”
“What is it?”
With a smug smile, Sasha rummaged through her pants pocket and pulled something out.

“All bears are powerless in front of this.”
It was a sugar cube, wrapped in packaging.
***

And just like Sasha had boasted—
When the Asiatic black bear finally woke up after a long nap and she offered it the sugar cube, it calmed down like magic.
Grrraaargh!

“There, there, you sweet little thing.”
The bear let out a grunt as if protesting its unfair treatment, but then snuggled into Sasha’s arms. She stroked its neck with practiced ease and accepted its affection.
Watching her handle the bear so naturally, we realized that everything she’d said earlier wasn’t just bravado—but even so, it was still a bizarre sight.

Whenever I got close, the bear whimpered and tried to hide behind Sasha’s back. No matter how you looked at it, this wasn’t the same ferocious beast from before.
The class president muttered in disbelief as she watched from the side.
“I knew bears liked sweets, but I didn’t know it was to this extent…”

“More importantly, why are you even carrying sugar cubes around?”
Satoru asked innocently, and Sasha responded like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“Sugar is one of the finest emergency rations. It’s easy to carry, packs a high calorie punch in small amounts, and most importantly, you can use it for tea.”

“R-right…”
Satoru nodded with a weirded-out expression as Sasha praised the greatness of sugar cubes.
Meanwhile, Sasha handed the bear another cube and jerked her chin toward us.

“More importantly, the next group will be coming through soon. We should head back to the campsite before it gets too late. We can’t stay here forever.”
“Oh, right.”
Finally remembering our original plan, we agreed to head back to the campsite before anyone else showed up.

And started worrying about how to explain all of this to the teachers.
***
At Ichijo Academy, Matsuda Yusuke—commonly known as “Gorilla”—was a veteran teacher in his 13th year.

His bulging muscles, forged through weight training, and constant choice of blue tracksuits made many mistake him for a P.E. teacher—but in truth, he had majored in history and taught the subject.
And now, for the first time in his 13-year teaching career, Matsuda faced a life-or-death crisis.
“Kyaaaa! A bear!”

“Run!”
“Guys! Run! Get into the tents, now!”
An Asiatic black bear had suddenly appeared from the darkness of the forest.

Nearly 2 meters tall, a beast with black fur and a white patch on its chest was raising its upper body and scanning its surroundings.
It probably came because of the smell of food wafting from the campsite.
There was no other reason a wild bear would just randomly show up.

After getting the students to safety, Matsuda blocked the bear’s path and shouted with determination.
“Ggh! As long as I live, you will not lay a finger on our students!”
The students looked at him with emotional expressions.

“Teacher…”
“He’s really doing this for us…”
“We’ll never forget your sacrifice!”

“Me neither!”
They all just assumed, of course, that Matsuda was going to die.
Because really, how could a human beat a bear?

Bears tear people apart.
Every year, TV shows news of hikers mauled by bears in the mountains.
“Matsuda-sensei! Just hang on! I’m calling the police now!”

“Matsuda-sensei! We believe in you!”
Encouraged by his fellow teachers, Matsuda clenched his fists and threw off the new hiking jacket he had bought on a 3-month installment plan.
And with that, his normally sealed macho muscles were revealed under the moonlight.

“Uooooooooh! Bring it on, bear bastard!”
Just as he shouted and prepared to charge the bear—
“Kumamon! I know you’re hungry, but you can’t run off alone like that!”

A sharp voice called out from behind the massive Asiatic black bear.
And Matsuda recognized that voice.
It belonged to Sasha, the exchange student from Russia who had arrived about a month ago.

She peeked her face out from behind the bear, and Matsuda shouted in horror.
“Sasha! Let me handle this—get to safety!”
But Sasha tilted her head in confusion.

“Eh? What are you talking about?”
ROOAARRGH!
Before Matsuda could even react, the bear turned not toward him—but toward Sasha.

Panicking, Matsuda tried to leap in—but the bear had already wrapped its thick, muscular arms around Sasha’s waist.
A horrifying incident unfolding right before his eyes.
Overcome with rage at the thought of losing a student, Matsuda prepared to rush the bear—only to stop when he saw it.

“There, there. Want more? You greedy thing.”
Sasha, calmly stroking the fierce beast as if it were a puppy.
Matsuda fainted on the spot.

***
“Kyaa! So cute!”
The Asiatic black bear we had brought back to the campsite—now named “Kumamon”—quickly won over the students.

And of course it did—this wasn’t some mascot costume with a person inside. It was a real, live bear.
Despite its earlier rampage, it now sat peacefully, eating meat the teachers had brought to grill tomorrow, and accepting everyone’s pats.
It must’ve been really hungry.

Still, the fact that something so docile had gone on a rampage earlier—all thanks to Satoru…
Matsuda-sensei, who had been ready to risk his life to protect the students, heaved a deep sigh of relief after hearing what happened.
“Are you sure it’s really not dangerous?”

The teacher asked nervously, and Sasha nodded firmly.
I added that I’d step in and subdue it if things got out of hand, and Matsuda-sensei—though still skeptical—agreed to let Kumamon stay at the campsite.
“Sasha, why’d you name it Kumamon?”

“Because it looks like him.”
Looking at the Asiatic black bear, who looked just like the Kumamoto mascot Kumamon, I couldn’t help but agree.